Recomendations to improve the accountability of the Framingham Police Department

  1. Their internal affairs department should be a civilian board, with no present or past relationships within any police department, that is continually trained on the U.S. Constitution.
    It should never be any past or present police officers.

    It's primary purpose should be the protection of civilians.

  2. Each police vehicle including (and especially) motorcycles should be trackable using GPS technology.

    Tracking logs should be available to the public just as the current police logs are (one or two days old).

    We can determine for ourselves just how long those Dunkin Donuts visits really are. Otherwise, we need access to the Dunkin Donuts video cameras and we do not have such access.

    We can also get visual information on how the streets of Framingham are (or NOT) patrolled.

    The police will fiercely resist this recommendation because they want anonymity in their behaviour. We the taxpayers want clear transparency in their behaviour.

  3. Any officer issued a taser should be tasered so that they clearly understand what they do to others.

  4. If the penalty for committing a crime against a cop is greater than normal, then the penalty for a cop who commits a crime should also be greater than normal. No double standards.

  5. Every police officer hired should submit to a DNA test so we can accumulate police DNA. I'm sure they have nothing to hide.

  6. Each police officer should have a picture of him/her on a public web site, simply because the concerted effort by police to retain their anonymity enables and facilitates aggressive behaviour.

  7. Every officer should have multiple pictures of him/her taken for facial recognition use. Those pictures should be placed in any public face recognition database.

  8. Every officer should have to read a 300 word essay for the purpose of voice recognition purposes.

  9. Police uniforms should have large football jersey style badge numbers which allows for easy reading at a distance of 100 feet.

    This removes some of their power of anonymity that enables and facilitates aggressive behaviour.

    Currently their uniforms only have a tiny name tag which can only be read if you're 5 feet away or less. If you get any closer, you'll spook them and they will charge you with assault and battery if you touch them.

    How utterly offensive!

  10. Each police cruiser should have very large identifying numbers on each side so that we can identify its poor driver from a distance, using the police log files.

    This removes some of their power of anonymity that enables and facilitates aggressive behaviour.

    The fact that a big cruiser number is not on the side of the cruiser and only on the roof (where you can't see it) is a strong indication that these officers want anonymity.

  11. Each police cruiser should have a camcorder on its dash that must be turned on with every encounter with the public.

    Failure to turn the camcorder on should be punishable with 3 days of unpaid leave.

  12. All officers interacting with the public should have a bodycam, and any testimony by that police officer in a court should be inadmissable without bodycam footage to support it.

  13. Police officers should be licensed , and have their license revoked due to malfeasance.

  14. The Commonwealth of Mass should pass a bill to release long-secret disciplinary records of police officers. This would allow us to see the rotting apples before they kill someone.

  15. Any officer who is head of a police union should be financially audited annually.

  16. All encounters with the public should be video/audio recorded. This would clearly tell us the attitude the police exhibit towards the public. This, more than anything else. is what the police desperately try to hide from the public, their perception of being above the law.

  17. All officers should be required to clearly identify themselves when asked to do so. They are after all, public servants. They should not be trying to pretend to be our masters.

    Failure to identify themselves should have a substantial penalty attached to it, such as one week of unpaid leave.

    I would suggest that every officer have business cards to hand out.

  18. Police officers should be routinely tested for drug/alcohol usage (on a monthly basis).

  19. Police job applicants that have more than two years of military service should not be considered. The military is an organization that trains an individual to kill. Any applicant who enjoyed the military perhaps enjoys using deadly force on others. This is particularly true for those who were snipers in the military. This is how you militarize the police.

  20. The online police logs should show us who submitted the log entries. This would provide accountability and transparency. These are two words that are not well understood by our police.

    The alleged Thin Blue line is very protective of itself and has often shown us its Wall of Silence.

  21. The booking area in the rear of the main police station should have automated video and audio recordings of every person arrested in Framingham. Once a person is in the custody of the police, they should be under video surveillance until they are placed in a cell. Even then, video recordings might be recommended to keep police abuse at a minimum.

  22. The public has a right to know how many complaints have been filed against any police officer. Such a record of complaints should be a public record on the web.

  23. Given that police officers spent an inordinate amount of time driving around in cruisers, the public has a right to know how many vehicle accidents they have been involved in , and how many accidents where they were found at fault.

    The police department should provide an annual accident report showing precise information on all the accidents that police are involved in.

    Consider Val Krishtal's record.

  24. All the laptops on police cruisers should be checked monthly for pornography of any kind. Since police arrest people for child pornography, they can easily copy such pornography for their own purposes. Police are not saints and they are corrupted by power. Perhaps we do have pedo-cops.

  25. The finances of police officers should be audited once a year to determine if any sudden outside income has surfaced. The income has to be legitimate and not stolen from a drug bust or others arrests. Given the sheer number of illegals we have, its easy to threaten them with deportation.

  26. When a police officer is involved in any unusual incident, the following should be investigated automatically as part of a checklist:

    • the police officer's cellphone should be examined carefully to see if it was being used at the time of the incident,

    • the officer's recent history (30 days) of detail related work should be made public to see if s(he) was possibly exhausted (tired and distracted).

    • the officer should be tested for drugs and alcohol.

  27. Police officers should never be allowed to post anonymously in comments in local papers. That's cowardice at its best .

  28. Police officers should not be able to exercise any greater privacy rights than any other individual.

    Badges do not give you any extra rights.

  29. Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide. No less should be expected of law enforcement,

  30. Police officers should be limited to 100 hours of detail work per year. .

    It is not their primary job, but it is their cash cow and they guard their detail monopoly zealously.

  31. Each year, the police department should publish a list of complaints against it's officers, including date/time and nature of the complaint.

  32. If settlement awards for police brutality came out of their pension and union funds, that problem would disappear overnight.

  33. Police should be trained to first get a signed warrant before commandeering a house. Remember the Constituion?

  34. Police should be trained to not shove large cumbersome objects (or even small ones) into anyone's anus.

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com